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Finishing the Roof Of Your Small House

There are many types of roofing material that you can use for your small house. The most common type, in the U.S. at least, is asphalt. Other types include wood shingles, cedar shakes, real slate, metal, fake slate, ceramic tile, thatch, clay tiles, and concrete. You will want to consider selecting roofing that best compliments your small house and stands up well to the weather elements. By far and away my preference for roofing material is metal. A metal roof lasts longer than an asphalt roof, and when replaced can be recycled. Metal roofs are also lightweight, durable, and relatively easy to install. They no longer resemble the old metal barn roofs from days gone by. Metal roofing is now very stylish and high-tech with a

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choice of many colors. Asphalt is the most widely used, low maintenance, and cost effective with a guarantee of about 20 years. I think the main reason asphalt is still used so much is because of the value. It is fairly low priced per 100 square feet and carries a reasonable guarantee and life span, as well as being readily available at just about any home improvment store. Whatever material you choose there are a few projects to consider such as a wood stove or fireplace before finishing the roof of your small house. Reworking the framing in the roof and ceiling after the house is done can be painful and complicated (ie, expensive!). Planning now will save you headaches later. I would advise that if you're even remotely considering putting in a woodstove or fireplace in the future to DO IT NOW before the final roofing goes on and everything else gets closed up. You also have to take into consideration clearances of framing from the stovepipe and chimney.

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A simple schematic drawing of how a wood or pellet stove pipe should be framed and flashed. Picture from England's Stove Works, Inc.

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The flashing around a stove pipe or chimney should be done with care and it is best done while the house is being built, not retroactively. I had intentions for my own house to put in a woodstove in a year or two after construction. I never got around to it because the price quote to install it later made me gasp. I'm so kicking myself for not putting in a basic stovepipe and cheap woodstove right from the beginning and then I could have always upgraded later. Also, if you are considering solar panels of some kind to mount on the roof this will affect the kind of roofing material you can use since the rafters are the most secure place for mounting a solar panel. You can also opt to install photovoltaic shingles which are solar powered shingles embedded into the conventional asphalt shingle pattern. This saves hassles associated with installing a solar panel such as leak prevention and panel angling problems due to roof design to name a few. Before choosing to finish the roof of your small house you want to know as much as you can about the future use of the building and possible renovations. These are considerations that are in addition to the basic physical characteristics that determine the type of roof you install. You will also want to consider the building code for your region and the environment that surrounds your small house.

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Other Pages You Might Be Interested In... Types of Trusses Roof Framing Heating & Cooling Your Home

Exterior Siding Options

Tarpaper is now up on the roof. Shingles next.

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Steps In Building a House

We'll go into more details on each of these steps in a moment. But, for now, these are the basic steps to building a house: 1. research 2. read books related to home building 3. ask questions 4. research 5. read magazines related to home building 6. ask questions 7. contemplate 8. spend time visiting and observing your intended building site 9. ask more questions 10. help somebody else build their house, even for a day 11. ask questions 12. look through mountains of plans 13. stop at houses you like and politely ask questions 14. go on new home construction tours 15. go to home shows 16. ask questions 17. attend some building workshops 18. ask around about good subcontractors 19. examine your finances 20. research covenants, codes, setbacks, zoning, etc., on your piece of land 21. talk to your future neighbors 22. pick a likely plan and build a model from it 23. contemplate 24. ask questions of your bank about their building restrictions for approving a loan 25. investigate other funding sources as a backup 26. plan your temporary housing options while your new home is being built 27. have an architect look over your final plan 28. ask questions 29. dig the hole, frame the walls, run the wiring and plumbing, put the roof on 30. move in 31. work like a dog to pay off your loan Ok, ok, so this is a bit of an exaggeration. What I really wanted to do here is emphasize how critically important the planning phase is. There is so much to know about building even a basic house, that you will never be able to know everything before breaking ground. Even folks who make home building their living are always learning. There's a mountain of knowledge you can acquire before setting shovel to soil. The more you know

before jumping into your house building project the greater your chances of things going relatively smoothly. So what would a more realistic list of steps in building a house look like? Let's look at it from the likely possibility that you want to be the general contractor for the project, but not necessarily do all the typical subcontract work. While keeping in mind that the planning, research, questioning, contemplation, etc. phase is all important, it would probably look a little more like this: 1. thorough planning and research 2. site selection and evaluation 3. finalizing plan selection, including working with an architect on detail adjustments if necessary 4. draw up a materials list and get quotes from 2 to 4 supply yards in the area; this includes truss design and ordering 5. mortgage or other finance acquisition 6. construction site insurance 7. permit application and approval 8. establish temporary electricity from power company 9. interview and secure contracts with subcontractors 10. survey site, find a good excavator, triple check property boundaries and setback laws, stake out foundation corners, and set up erosion control 11. remove topsoil from site and set aside, dig hole for basement (or whatever foundation type you're using) 12. put in gravel road base for driveway (keeps the mud down a bit) 13. set forms for footings & pour concrete 14. set forms for foundation walls & pour concrete; waterproof & insulate exterior of foundation 15. backfill foundation after thoroughly set 16. frame floor joists, apply underlayment 17. frame walls, apply exterior sheathing & house wrap (if putting in a single unit tub/shower surround make sure to place it in or near the future bathroom space before too many interior walls are framed up) 18. frame roof or place roof trusses 19. apply exterior finish to roof 20. wiring & plumbing 21. install heating & cooling system (duct work?) 22. for country setting: dig well & install septic system 23. exterior finishing 24. insulate 25. interior wall finishing 26. flooring 27. bathroom finishing & kitchen finishing 28. final grading & landscaping of site 29. final occupancy inspection and permit

30. house warming partaaayyyyyy! Truthfully there's many of these steps that are done concurrently. And some simply have to be done before others. It should be obvious that walls can't be framed up before the first floor joists and underlayment are set down, and that the concrete of the foundation walls have to thoroughly set up before applying waterproofing, rigid insulation and backfilling (they usually say 3 to 5 days depending on temperature). I'll eventually build a page on this site going into detail on each one of these. Unfortunately there is one step in this process that I didn't do. Number 6, construction site insurance. During the whole construction process of my house there was only one injury, and pretty serious at that. But, the guy had great health insurance through his employer so it all turned out ok in the end. I don't even want to specify what the injury was for fear of his insurance company tracking me down, even after all this time. All I'll say is it had something to do with a pneumatic hammer. In hindsight we were pretty damn lucky that nothing else happened. This list (well, 2 lists really) on steps to building a house is based on my experience of house building. Depending on the area of the country, or planet, that you're building, your permit process, legal restriction, and climate and soil factors will be different. And there will undoubtedly be problems and dilemmas that come up during the process that will throw you for a loop. The inspector many not like something and insist that it be changed before signing off; there's a strike at the truss factory and there's no definite delivery of your trusses; the color of your special order roofing material is wrong and has to be exchanged. I could go on ad infinitum. You get my point, though. Planning is critical, but it's best if you're adaptable and flexible when glitches come up. The most important step to reach, beside the final inspection and occupancy permit, is to get the materials and structure under cover. Buy or borrow lots of tarps. Cover you pile of building materials with plenty of tarps. Get the walls and roof framed and sheathed as quickly as possible. If the final roofing material isn't available, put tarps on the roof. Short and infrequent exposure to rain isn't too much of a problem, but several days of rain and standing water on the plywood and OSB is bad. This kind of manufactured lumber has lots of glues and resins and will easily delaminate when soaked long enough, which is about a day or less. If you experience a pouring rain make sure to get into the structure and sweep out any standing water on the underlayment. This is the main reason the basement floor concrete isn't poured too soon. Even with the roof on and the exterior walls sheathed there's still many large openings (future doors and windows) that can let in a driving rain. Building on a slab is a whole 'nother ball game in terms of deflecting standing water. Rob Roy told of a home builder that had half finished cordwood walls on their monolithic slab. After a rain there was sufficient standing water on the slab floor next to the cordwood walls to cause some serious water absorption and expansion issues. If you're intending to build on a slab at least have a raised curb incorporated into the edge of the

structure. This extra 2 to 4 inches will raise the water-absorptive materials out of reach of all but the deepest, flood-level, water. Just a suggestion. These lists will give you a good start in contemplating drawing up your own list, too. The list of inspections that will be done on your house is also a good guide to the order of things. Even if you start out with a list that comes from an experienced builder you'll find there are things you'll change to suit your own unique project. Best of luck on your adventure in house building! It's an experience I'd recommend to anybody that wants a serious challenge in their life.